Troopers, deputies arrest dozens in interstate drug enforcement effort

ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Atlanta is the number one hub for drug trafficking in the Southeast. That's why the Butts County Sheriff staged a four-day operation which led to the arrest of dozens of suspects and almost a million dollars in dirty money.

Operation Ice Storm centered around Interstate 75, which thousands of motorists use every day. Sheriff Gary Long said the expressway is also used by the Mexican Cartel to traffic millions of dollars in illegal narcotics like cocaine, methamphetamines, and marijuana.

"Miami fire years has been a focused area of enforcement by federal agents...and the Mexican cartel they know that. So they want to move their wears into Atlanta, Georgia, a more urban area where they can blend in and then send it throughout the entire country," Sheriff Mike Lewis from Wicomico County, Maryland remarked.

Deputies from Butts, Douglas, Lamar, Carroll, and Wicomico County, Maryland all participated in the massive Interstate Criminal Enforcement effort the week of April 8-11.

Deputies seized scales, edibles, THC oil, weapons, automobiles and more than $430,000 in cash, often wrapped in rubber bands in thousand dollar increments.

"Our largest seizure this week is pretty much what we expected...it was a white male out of California with $326 thousand dollars in US currency and a couple of pounds of marijuana," an excited Sheriff Mike Lewis from Wicomico County Maryland remarked.

"In the first few days we seized over 10,000 pounds of methamphetamines passing through the county and nearly $400,000 in United States currency, which were proceeds from illegal drug sales,” Butts County Sheriff Gary Long commented.